Vancouver: Anti-2010 Press Conference

Canadian Press, Nov 20, 2008

VANCOUVER, B.C. — Anti-Olympic activists ramped up their rhetoric Thursday in hopes of attracting the attention of the world's press, in Vancouver this week for a briefing on the 2010 Winter Games.

But their cries fell on local ears only. A news conference held by the Olympic Resistance Network was well-attended by local media, but it appeared not one of the more than 200 members of the international media in the city for the official press briefing appeared to show up.

That didn't stop activists from threatening to take whatever steps necessary to tell what they say is the other side of Vancouver's Olympic story.

First Nations will throw up blockades if their traditional ways of life are disrupted by the Games, said Seis'Lom of the Stlatlimx band.

He's worried that security measures could prevent traditional activities, like hunting.

" Are they basically going to shut everything down just because the Olympics are here?" he said. "We're saying that doesn't happen on Indian land."

With no treaties in place between the dozens of First Nations bands in B.C. and the government, some say the Games are being held illegally in Vancouver and in Whistler, B.C.

In recognition of that sensitivity, millions of dollars have been spent by government officials to make sure that the four First Nations whose traditional territories are home to the Games directly benefit.

A corporation called the Four Host First Nations has also been formed to take advantage of marketing and tourism opportunities and the 2010 organizing committee has spared no effort to include First Nations in everything from the design elements of the Olympics to the torch relay.

Concerns also cover the social and environmental destruction activists say is wrought by the Games.

"The impact of the Olympics is not as great as they say it is," said Carol Martin, an aboriginal woman who works in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

"It is pushing people into poverty, there is more violence, there is more destruction of land. Are we not looking and watching the news that we are disturbing the animals out there when the bears come out and they blame you for not looking after your garbage?"

One major concern to some local residents is the impact on housing.

Since the bid was awarded, it is estimated that more than 1,300 beds of low-income housing have been lost as developers seek to flip low-income spaces into more profitable tourist or student accommodations in advance of the Games.

To try and live up to its pledge that no one will be made homeless by the Olympics, the organizing committee has funded additional beds in a local shelter and still have another $250,000 in their budget for other housing initiatives.

The province and local governments have also taken over several low-income housing projects and have promised to have more beds available by 2010.

Opposition to the Games comes from all corners of Vancouver's vibrant activist community.

The Olympic Resistance Network is a blend of poverty, aboriginal and social justice groups coming together under the banner of No Olympics on Stolen Native Land.

"All of those folks are coming together here during the Olympic Games to try and tell the other half of the story through creative non-violence, direct action, civil disobedience, lobbying, letter writing, marching, puppets, art, performance, all kinds of different forms of resistance and protest," said Garth Mullins, a member of the network.

Earlier in the week, representatives of the Impact on Communities Coalition, made up of academics and civil rights experts, also held a news conference in the hopes of garnering some international media attention.